


Delicate Times

by Mertiya



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, But Billy could probably be better at communicating, Discussion of mpreg, Dysphoria, It's Teddy's turn on the angst bandwagon, It's schmoopy in the end though, M/M, Vague genderfluidity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 15:12:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11649180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: A discussion about starting a family leads to Teddy confronting some of his personal fears.





	Delicate Times

_Beginnings are such delicate times. – Frank Herbert_

                  Teddy sat on the bed, staring at his hands. They were large, hairy—not green, currently, but still decently-sized. They felt like his hands. He shifted into Hulkling form, and his hands swelled, muscle rippling along the backs. Green now. Still his hands. He shifted again, smaller now—Iron Man probably wouldn’t mind if Teddy borrowed his shape for a few minutes. Okay, they didn’t _exactly_ feel like his hands anymore, but they still felt—mostly okay? He was starting to get a little more uncomfortable, but he could take someone else’s shape when he had to, although the thought of doing so for an extended period of time wasn’t great. But he wasn’t _trying_ to take someone else’s shape.

                  Frowning, he shifted again, feeling his waist thinning, ribs shifting, chest swelling. The beat of his heart sped up in his ears as his hands shrank, small and pale and thin and delicate. They didn’t look like his hands anymore. The weight on his chest was all wrong, the way his hips curved outward—

                  It was just another shape, Teddy told himself sternly. Trying not to think, he got up off of the bed and headed over to the mirror. He didn’t even look that different, he noted; he still had close-cropped blond hair surrounding a broad face with blue eyes. But it felt so utterly, fundamentally _wrong_ that he wanted to claw off his skin. He couldn’t possibly hold this shape for nine whole months.

                  With a muttered curse, he shifted again, letting his flesh stream back into his normal shape, losing the breasts and hips and the extra rib. Fuck. This should not be this hard. He was a _shapeshifter_ , for god’s sake, why should it matter whether there was a bit of extra fat on his chest instead of a bit of extra flesh between his legs? Covering his face with his hands, he took a deep breath. He just needed more practice, that was all.

                  Someone knocked at the door. “Teddy?” It was Billy’s voice. “Babe, are you all right? You’ve been in there for almost an hour.”

                  “Fine, Bee.” Teddy heaved a sigh. It wasn’t going to happen today, it seemed. _Maybe next week_ , he told himself. _Maybe never_ , whispered a frustrated voice in the back of his mind. “I was just—thinking.”

                  “Can I come in?”

                  “Uh—yeah. Sure. Of course.”

                  “Good, because I have something to talk to you about.”

                  Teddy’s stomach roiled at those words. Ever since the subject of children had come up at dinner with his parents-in-law three weeks ago, he’d been trying to avoid having a serious discussion with Billy. He knew Billy wanted a family—hell, Teddy wanted one, too. They were at a stable point in their lives, they had steady incomes, most of their mental health issues were under control—it was the perfect time to do something that they’d established several years ago they were both interested in doing someday. The only problem was Teddy himself.

                  It wasn’t that he thought Billy wouldn’t be understanding. They could adopt. It wasn’t as if most people in their circumstances had a choice about the matter. It was just—he wanted to do this for Billy. He wanted to do this _with_ Billy. He wanted—he wanted to make a child with Billy, but he couldn’t, because his stupid, useless, supposedly-shapeshifter brain couldn’t handle the idea of being female for a few stupid months.

                  Billy opened the door. “So I’ve been thinking,” he said, tangling one hand in his hair nervously. “Uh…I mean, I did this spell?” His voice was high with nerves. “You know, because we were talking about wanting kids and all, and I thought, well, we _could_ adopt, but it might be nice if we didn’t have to, so I went and thought about it and I’ve been practicing and—uh. What do you think?”

                  Teddy cocked a confused eyebrow at him. “About what?” he asked.

                  Billy blinked. “Uh,” he said. “Tee. Can’t you tell? Oh, maybe the hoody—yeah, I guess it doesn’t make that much difference if you can’t—lemme just get this off.” He reached underneath his red hoody and tried to drag it off over his head. It flipped over the top and then stayed there. “Shit,” Billy said, helplessly. “Um, little help?”

                  “You dork,” Teddy told him fondly. Gently, he reached underneath and untangled the hoody, helping Billy squirm his way out of it. “There, now what—holy _shit_ , Billy.”                 

                  “Um, is that a good reaction or a bad one?” Billy ran a nervous hand through his hair. “It kind of confused me at first too. They bounce?” he offered, putting his hand beneath—holy shit, they were _breasts_ , Billy had _breasts_ , why did Billy have _breasts_? He still looked—well, like Billy, dark hair flopping messily into his eyes. Maybe the fat on his cheeks had shifted a little, but not by much. Except instead of being a scrawny up-and-down _line_ , he was more of a scrawny up-and-down _curve_ , his hips poking out slightly further than usual, and the very obvious and undeniable curve of a pair of soft breasts standing out underneath his t-shirt. “Um, see, I’ve been thinking, since that conversation with Mom—and I mean, we _could_ adopt, but I’d kind of like it if, well, I mean, y’know, we have the _option_ to have a kid more, uh, biologically, and I’d kind of like that? If you were okay with it? So I worked out this spell, if that’s. If that’s okay with you.”

                  Teddy stared. “But—” he said uncertainly. “Are you all right with that?”

                  “Yeah, absolutely! I guess it feels a _little_ weird, but it doesn’t bother me.” He moved nervously from foot to foot. “Unless…you’re not attracted to me like this? And that’s a problem, I mean, we could do IVF or something if that was easier, although that seems kind of silly.”

                  “Goddammit, Billy.” Teddy grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a long, deep kiss. “I am attracted to you, you idiot. How could you ever think I wouldn’t be?”

                  Somehow, it was the wrong thing to say. Billy’s eyes slid to the ground. Ten years ago, that might have been the end of the conversation, but they’d both grown since then. It wasn’t a perfect relationship, but at least they were usually capable of communicating their fears. “Uh,” Billy said, then sighed. “Because I…wouldn’t be? I’m… _really_ not attracted to women.”

                  Teddy blinked. “Oh,” he said. “Well, um. That’s a good answer!”

                  “I mean, I, uh, I guess I could probably get it up if I really tried,” Billy said, with a frown. “But, y’know, it really wouldn’t be my first choice.”

                  “Apparently I’m…pan, then,” Teddy said, slowly. “Or bi. What’s the difference?”

                  “You’re asking the wrong person.” Billy was relaxing slowly, but he frowned. “Then—what’s wrong? You still seem a little concerned.”

                  Teddy rubbed his face. “I’m just—confused. I mean, I’m the shapeshifter, so…shouldn’t I be the one to do this?”

                  Billy blinked at him. “Um, but you don’t like shapeshifting into women,” he said.

                  Teddy’s mouth opened. “How do you know that?”

                  “Uh…because you never do it, and because you’ve told me about how some of the stuff Greg made you do made you feel? I just thought, you know, it doesn’t bother me, so why not have me do it? And if you’re attracted to me like this, that makes it make even more sense, since I don’t care what shape I am in terms of, um, sex or gender or whatever, I mean I guess I normally prefer my normal Billy shape, but it’s not that big a deal for me, but I’m mostly pretty much entirely attracted to guys?”

                  “Oh,” said Teddy. When Billy put it like that, it seemed…obvious. He put a hand on the back of his neck. “Maybe I was trying a little too hard to make everything perfect.”

                  “I’d say that you shouldn’t have tried to do it by yourself, but I guess I kind of did, too,” Billy said meditatively. “Except that I, being vastly more skilled than you at being a good husband— _clearly_ —succeeded.” He chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I’m sorry, Tee, if I’d known this was bothering you so much, I’d have said something.”

                  Teddy shook his head. “I should have told you,” he said softly. “It’s just—everyone always _assumes_ that Skrull don’t really care what their shape is.”

                  “Well,” Billy said, leaning forward, “people assume really dumb things in general.” He kissed Teddy softly on the lips. “But also, you should especially not listen to them because you—” poking Teddy’s nose and punctuating his statement with another soft kiss, “—are not Skrull.”

                  Teddy rolled his eyes. “Half,” he pointed out. “And half Kree.”

                  “You know that the Ugly Duckling is dumb, right?”

                  “What?”

                  “Because, like, ducklings grow up thinking they’re whatever raised them and they’ll imprint on anything,” Billy shrugged. “So it should’ve seemed totally normal to all of them and to the ugly duckling itself because it was just a duck, right?”

                  “Are you calling me a _duck_?”

                  “Nope.” Billy leaned into him, and Teddy let his eyes slide shut as a feeling of rightness rose up in him in response to the embrace. “I’m calling you human, you big dork.”

                                                    


End file.
